Monthly Archives: July 2011

By the time that artists in the turbulence of the 1970’s had rejected formal art media: painting, sculpture, a number of alternative things had become established. The decade of extremity was actually earlier, when Abstract Expressionism took hold. The event … Continue reading →

A previous chapter focussed on the moment when a work materialises on the loom. Left is the idea, right is the finished work, bristling with physical inaccuracies. But, it achieves a crisp bovver boy zine-look. Title: Zine Guy, woven tapestry, … Continue reading →

Look closely at the surface of a tapestry and what do you see? Bumpy edges, hairy bits floating off, the joins, the crossovers, the abrupt changes; perhaps here and there, the variations in pressure applied by the weaver to tamp … Continue reading →

Does anyone recognise this syndrome? You made a cartoon or drawn outline for your next art project. The work is going ok; it’s not throwing up problems, things are not knotting up. But it’s regular and a bit unexciting. You … Continue reading →

The American Tapestry Alliance offers an extensive interview with Swedish/ Danish tapist Brigitta Hallberg. For copyright reasons I won’t add jpgs to my chapter but readers can find many examples of Hallberg’s work illustrating the ATA interview. My reaction was to … Continue reading →

The Swedish tapestry weaver Annika Eckdahl came to Australia at the request of Brett Alexander who ran the Arts dept of Newcastle Uni; he also arranged for me to talk to his fibre students. In 2008 both Annika and I … Continue reading →

Left: Hibiscus; below centre: Frilly Necked Lizard; right: Crane Meets Budgerigar. Hibiscus represents a world view, an island in the cosmic sea. A friend at the time described it as containing a myriad of creatures, rearing, hissing, prowling, slinking, hidden in … Continue reading →